Cisco will pay about $1.2 billion in cash and retention-based incentives to acquire the entire business and operations of Meraki.Mumbai: Indian arm of US-based technology major Cisco India on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to enhance digital security, readiness and awareness of cybersecurity.

Under the agreement, Cisco and CERT-In will establish a threat intelligence sharing program wherein personnel from Cisco and CERT-In will work together to address cybersecurity threats and incidents, identify and shape emerging security market trends and learn new approaches to enhance cybersecurity, an official statement said.

Cisco also laid out plans to deliver cybersecurity capabilities in India which include opening a new Security Operations Center (SOC) in Pune to provide cybersecurity services, a Cisco Cyber Range Lab in its Gurgaon facility to provide specialised technical training workshops for cybersecurity staff and a Cisco Security and Trust Organisation--India (Cisco S&TO) to ensure customer data protection.

Cisco S&TO – India will also work with public and private sector customers to help understand cyber risk and mitigate vulnerabilities, the statement said.

"Today’s cybersecurity announcements reaffirm Cisco’s long-term commitment to India, a strategic center of country digitization and innovation," Dinesh Malkani, president, Cisco India and SAARC, said in a statement.

The move holds relevance since mitigating cyber security risks has emerged as a major challenge following demonetisation, given customers' dependence on digital money.

“In light of rapidly evolving cyber tactics and shared risks in cyberspace, we are happy to have Cisco collaborate with us to enhance the security of India’s digital infrastructure and speed up digitalization of India," Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India said at the event.

As financial services firms in India move towards digitisation, devices, companies face risks of cyber attacks. A Cisco Security Report points out that 54 percent of cyber-attacks are not detected for months or years and may take several weeks before full containment and remediation are achieved.

This also holds relevance since hacker group Legion claimed responsibility for the recent hacks of digital accounts of prominent Indians and also said how "deeply flawed" the Indian banking system is.